Butthole Surfers

The name's half the fun where this band's concerned. Formerly known as the Ashtray Baby Heads, the Heads morphed into the Butthole Surfers, a real parent-buster from a song about beach transvestites. Vocalist Gibson "Gibby" Haynes, guitarist Paul Leary Walthall and drummer King Coffey were initially dubbed punk/hardcore, as demonstrated in the startling "The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey's Grave," but their songs were inspired by a variety of sources. Loping melodies, screaming guitar and Haynes' distorted vocals put the zany surfers into a category all their own. The Surfers (or do they prefer the Buttholes?) slid into the 1990s with sickening lyrics and attempted to make non-commercial bliss, but the band committed the ultimate sell-out: it signed with Capitol Records. The contract helped pump out the group's one modest radio hit in '96, "Pepper," from the Electric Larryland album.